Year:  2019

Director:  Kodie Bedford, Perun Bonser, Rob Braslin, Liam Phillips, Bjorn Stewart

Rated:  15+

Release:  October 4 and 5, 2019

Running time: 75 minutes

Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Clarence Ryan, Charlie Garber, Leonie Whyman, Tasia Zalar, Lily Sullivan, Luka May Glynn-Cole, Katherine Beckett

Intro:
… an extremely solid, horror anthology, with two stand out entries, that’s well worth your time and attention …

Australia has a long and proud history of making unforgettable genre films, despite the prevailing funding bodies’ mercurial interest in supporting them. From dark, allegorical thrillers like Wake in Fright (1971) to slowburn classics like Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), to nature-run-amok flicks like Razorback (1984), to more traditional outback slasher gear like Wolf Creek (2005), not to mention modern classics like Jennifer Kent’s iconic The Babadook (2014). We have, however, dropped the ball somewhat in letting the first people’s voices be heard in genre film, and anthology Dark Place seeks to change that rather glaring omission, by featuring shorts from rising Aboriginal filmmakers.

Like all anthology films, Dark Place is at times less than the sum of its parts, as the quality and level of interest varies from piece to piece. Solid efforts include Liam Phillips’ Foe, about an insomniac who begins to question her own sanity and Rob Braslin’s Vale Light, about witchy shenanigans on a housing estate. Perun Bosner’s arty Shore, shot in black and white, and dripping with atmosphere, feels a tad disconnected from the rest of the films, and while it’s not a dud, it’s certainly the weakest entry.

However, it’s the opening film, Kodie Bedford’s Scout and the closer, Bjorn Stewart’s Killer Native that are the stars of the show. Scout is a harrowing look at indigenous women sold into sex slavery, that mercifully becomes redemptive with borderline grindhouse glee, and Killer Native is a genuinely hilarious black comedy, set in colonial times with an indigenous twist on the zombie genre. Watching both of these shorts will almost certainly have you yearning for them to get the feature length treatment, with Killer Native in particular showcasing a sly, acerbic wit and fantastic comic timing, not to mention spectacular gore and a genuinely surprising ending.

It would be easy to suggest that you see Dark Place because giving a platform to rising indigenous voices is important, which is absolutely true. However, Dark Place can simply be recommended as an extremely solid, horror anthology, with two stand out entries, that’s well worth your time and attention and a grand addition to Australian genre cinema in general.

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